Chapter 1: From Above

Dexith was located in the Plains Region. It was one of the worst towns this world had to offer. The buildings were made of straw, bamboo, and hardened clay. Most of them were painted with the inviting warm colors of beige, gray, light gray, medium gray, dark gray, brown, and black. There weren’t any skyscrapers but most buildings were around as the tallest building was around five floors, but there were plenty of basements and floors below. Even for the seemingly single-story buildings. 

The founders of this town weren’t concerned with roads, so they made none. Every inch of ground here was just unfertile dirt. Plumes of smoke were puffed out of this town every so often which made it more than difficult to breathe for any outsider. This also made the air a thick and sickly yellow-green as if there was always something on fire in the town. Even if there was, no one would be helpful enough to stop it. 

Thieves were everywhere along with drunks, drug addicts, gamblers, gangsters, prostitutes, and, of course, murderers. The Plains Region tried to disown this wretched place, but with it being so close to the region’s capital, this task was next to impossible. 

Another next-to-impossible task was leaving this place. Unfortunately, those unlucky enough to be born here wouldn’t be seen leaving. They either grew up into the filthy things that went on here and leaned into them or ended up being killed by someone in this town before they reached twenty years of age. However, there was a reason to stay. The town used to be prosperous decades ago and those that rose above the rest, were able to leave. Less than a handful of those that garnered riches stayed. If one were to be able to steal from the right person, they’d have the money to leave as well. But no one knew where these people were located within town, so most stayed in hopes that they’d reveal themselves or someone would find information on them. Some have started rumors in the past and these lead to the wrong people getting robbed, killed, or both.

The Capital towered over the trees on the horizon. Anyone else in the town that wasn’t staying for the money thought if anything went awry, they had the capital to retreat to. It was just on the opposite end of a forest that separated the two towns. 

Syro was one of the unfortunate souls that remained in Dexith. Brown skin, navy blue spiky afro, bright yellow eyes with a slightly dimmer short sleeve shirt in color, and sweatpants that matched his hair. He was a good, poor kid that lost his parents when he was just a baby. Syro was indifferent towards the town. He’d spend most of his time playing with any stray and strange animals he found in the dirt-ridden streets. He was playing with a finger primate at the moment in an alley next to a dumpster. Next to a restaurant.

Syro, with the finger primate still resting on his index, watched as a cook came out of the side door and dumped trash from the day into the dumpster. He then pulled out a lighter and cigarette but stopped as Syro poked his head out from behind the dumpster. As Syro fully stepped out and climbed up the dumpster to reach in, the cook watched, lighting his cigarette before speaking to the boy. 

“Can’t do that, kid.”

Syro stopped at the top of the edge of the dumpster and glanced at the cook, before ignoring him and reaching in for the garbage.

“What did I just say--”

BOOM! The side door swung open to reveal the owner of the restaurant. He glared at the child, then locked eyes with the cook.

“What the hell’s going on out here?” he questioned.

“Kid’s digging through the garbage. I told him not to.”

“You don’t get a smoke break for another half hour!” the owner shouted before snatching the cigarette out of the cook’s mouth and throwing it on the ground. “Get back inside. And you, get away from my garbage!”

“But, I’m hungry.”

“Oh, you’re hungry, huh?” the owner said, placing a hand on his chin. “Then pay me.”

“What?”

“Pay me with 10 R-Coin and all the garbage is yours.”

“I don’t have--”

“Fine, 5!”

“I don’t have any money.”

“Then, get the hell off my property.”

The finger primate chittered at the owner, but Syro stroked the back of its neck to calm it down before addressing the owner.

“Sir, you threw the food away. That means you don’t want it, right?”

“Even if I did have it thrown out, it’s still on my property and I own it. You want it. So pay me, or leave.”

“You wouldn’t give this garbage a second thought if I wasn’t here.”

“Are you getting smart with me, boy?” The owner stepped to Syro and loomed over him. Syro believed the owner was waiting for him to say something else, so he stayed quiet, but it didn’t matter as the owner smacked the child to the ground. He then closed his hand and began beating Syro in his face until blood leaked. 

He was only stopped as the cook came back out to tell the owner that a customer was giving them trouble.

“If I ever see you back here, I’ll kill you, boy.”

The owner stepped back inside his restaurant and left Syro to cry in the alley. The finger primate chittered some more and squeezed Syro’s finger tight. Syro tried to look at the primate but he couldn’t make out what it was trying to communicate through his tears. 

With the primate still wrapped, Syro ran into the middle of town and wiped his tears as he heard screaming. He wiped his tears and followed the gaze of the bystanders and onlookers to a man that was pleading for his life.

“We’re waaaaaaay past the due date, man,” the assaulter said, knife in hand, standing over the helpless man. “Where’s my money?”

“It was only 20 R!” 

“So where IS it?!” the assaulter shouted, raising the knife in the air. Syro glanced around at the crowd and saw some faces with disinterest, some with bloodlust, and most with melancholy. The more faces he looked at, the more his heart rate increased until his body went numb and he sprinted at the knife-wielder. 

The finger primate screeched and hopped off Syro’s finger the moment it noticed the kid making a beeline for the obvious danger.

However, before Syro could even close half the distance, there was an explosion where the two men were. He was blown back into the crowd by the force of whatever just happened. As he got to his feet on his own, he heard gasps and mutters from the gatherers. His heart dropped, but his curiosity rose as he locked eyes with something…inhuman. This thing landed on the two men that drew the crowd and now all that was left of them were stains that wouldn’t be noticeable in this town. 

The thing was the tallest thing Syro had ever laid eyes on. He was sure it wouldn’t even fit in most of Dexith’s buildings. But, it wasn’t here for that. It made a creaking sound as it hunched forward and cocked it’s head to the side. The creaking sound came from the armor that covered it. It looked like it was an ancient warrior of some sort--or at least it used to be. Any place where its skin should have been was either covered or replaced by a black, flickering silhouette that mocked the movement of fire. As for its head, it wore a helmet with a feathered crest that was blood red in color. The most distinguishable thing was its eyes. If they were black, it would look as if it didn’t have any, but it had bright red eyes that were no larger than the size of a pea. They were only noticeable because of how brightly they shined. The brightness increasingly became unbearable to keep staring at it, so Syro averted his eyes and closed them to let his pupils adjust, only to hear the buzzing sound of hot plasma burst from the being. This sound was followed by a long silence. Then came the screams. The screams wouldn’t stop until everyone was dead. 

Syro opened his eyes to see the mutilated head of a bystander that was next to him looking back up at him. Their body was nowhere to be found. The buzzing sound continued and would overshadow the sound of screams each time the thing let beams fire off at the town.

It didn’t seem to have a specific target, so Syro did what the rest of the townsfolk were doing and ran for his life. He made sure to scoop up the finger primate that was with him and let it hold tight of his index as he bolted, following the crowd to the nearest exit of Dexith. 

On the way out, he passed by the restaurant that would let him eat and he saw the owner come out the front.

“What the hell is going on out here?!” he shouted. Syro stopped, panting, and pointed back towards the center of town.

“You gotta run. There’s…” He was trying to catch his breath.

“Spit it out, boy!”
“A monster! It’s killing people. You gotta get outta here!” Syro finally said. 

“A monster?” the owner repeated. He was about to say something else, but Syro pointed at the sky. The thing in the center of town had launched a building into the air and it was coming towards the restaurant.

“Look out!”

It was too late, as Syro was knocked away and out by the force of the flying building colliding with the restaurant.

Syro woke up an indeterminate amount of time later thanks to the primate chittering in his ear to see everything he knew destroyed and on fire. Including the restaurant in front of him. He heard groans among the debris and weaved through the broken wooden beams and bundles of snapped bamboo to find the owner trapped by his own building. The way he was laying didn’t allow for him to have the leverage to lift the beams that trapped him.

“You. Boy. Help me.”

Syro looked around before finding a stick of bamboo that wasn’t on fire and brought it over to the owner. He stuck the beam underneath the debris and pushed down, lifting the pile that trapped the owner by enough so the owner could spin and lift the rest off himself. 

Before he could say anything further to his savior, they both heard the violent buzzing of eye beams nearby. Across the small, dirt street was the thing using its eye beams to obliterate the remains of a helpless person of the town. It then turned its attention to the two onlooking as if it sensed their fear. Syro turned to speak to the owner, but he wasn’t behind him. He had already begun to sprint away from the child, leaving him behind. 

Syro said nothing as he couldn’t even take a step before the thing landed in front of him, knocking him to the ground upon landing. Syro began to tear up and couldn’t make a sound as the thing charged its eye beams and released them at Syro’s stomach, killing the boy.

The finger primate tried chittering more in the boy’s ear as the thing leapt away from the now non-existent town. To no avail.